The Prediction of Academic Procrastination on Self-handicapping and Academic Expectations Stress

The aim of this research was to predict the academic procrastination of students by assessing self-handicapping behavior and Academic Expectations Stress. This research is descriptive and uses correlation methods. The statistical population consisted of male students who were high school students in Mashhad during the 2016-2017 academic years. 175 students were in the sample group; the sampling was by cluster sampling methods. The following scales were used in this research: academic procrastination, Academic Expectations Stress, and self-handicapping. The data was analyzed with Pearson’s correlation coefficient and stepwise regression. The results showed that self-handicapping and Academic Expectations Stress have a positive correlation with academic procrastination. In determining which of these variables was a better predictor for academic procrastination, we found that self-handicapping was the most reliable predictor. Therefore, we can conclude that student’s academic procrastination can be predicted using self-handicapping, Academic Expectations Stress. Furthermore, we conclude that by lowering their stress levels, and control self-handicapping, the increase of student’s procrastination can be prevented.